General Counsel for Beauty and Wellbeing and Foods Greater Asia and General Counsel Philippines

Role Title: General Counsel for Beauty and Wellbeing and Foods Greater Asia and General Counsel Philippines

Location: Philippines

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) businesses, with interest across 5 Business Groups, including the Foods and Beauty & Wellbeing Business Groups. As Unilever we want our business to flourish, and we know that our success depends on others flourishing around us. That's why our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace, and why sustainable, long-term growth is at the heart of our business model. 

Beauty and Wellbeing

We believe in Positive Beauty & Healthy Lifestyles – for all our people, and across all our brands. We’re a 12.5B business with products used by more than 1B people every day. We are uniquely positioned to shape a new era of beauty and wellbeing, and our ambition is clear. Through iconic brands, cutting-edge science, and purposeful growth, we are on a mission to make beauty and wellbeing joyful, inclusive, equitable and sustainable.

We’re building our global portfolio with brands that are inclusive and care for all skin, hair and body types, championing the diversity of beauty. In addition to our household names like Dove, Vaseline and Sunsilk, Unilever Beauty and Wellbeing is also home to our Prestige portfolio (the likes of Dermalogica, Hourglass and Living Proof) and our Health & Wellbeing collective (a carefully crafted group of vitamins, minerals and supplement brands including Liquid IV and OLLY).

Foods

Foods is a €12bn business with an industry leading profit margin. Nutrition is close to 1/4th of the Unilever’s Turnover, present in (virtually) every market where the Company operates. Our products get chosen more than 10bn times a year, 3bn of those purchases are generated by Knorr, our biggest mega-brand, accounting for almost €4.5bn Turnover. Hellmann’s is the second largest brand within Foods, on its way to cross a €2bn Turnover threshold.

The rest is represented by strong regional and local brands including Horlicks, Unox, Bango, Calve and Red Label. Our Foods ambition is to be ‘a World-Class Force for Good in Food’. We strongly believe that there is competitive, profitable Foods growth to be had from serving consumers food that is healthier for them and for the planet.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Crafting, finalizing and implementing legal strategy for Beauty & Well-being and Foods Greater Asia Business Unit (BUs).
• Member of the Beauty and Wellbeing and Foods Greater Asia Leadership Teams (LT) supporting the strategy and expansion/growth of both BUs.  As part of the LT, the General Counsel will be partnering with the BU market leaders and BU functional leaders and serve as the key point of contact for Greater Asia business teams for legal issues affecting the business of the BUs.  As General Counsel of the Philippines, will serve as advisory to the Philippine Board of Directors and will also be point of contact for the local team for legal issues affecting the Philippines.
• Working collaboratively with lawyers supporting the business of the BUs across Greater Asia to ensure that the business complies with all internal policies, local regulatory and reporting requirements.
• Mitigate potential legal and reputational risk by improving and maintaining the governance framework in each market in terms of customer compliance, sanctions framework, product & regulatory compliance and contracts compliance.
• Managing and business partnering an end-to- end P&L responsible business from sourcing to selling and customer service issues.
• Supporting creative and effective route to market models for the BUs.
• Working with Demand Creation Teams, RA, R&D, and Marketing Legal on Marketing issues.
• Collaborating with the Foods BG General Counsel and central IP teams in effective IP strategy for the Foods portfolio and finding opportunities of growth through the IP strategy for Foods Greater Asia.
• Collaborating with the Beauty and Well-being BG General Counsel in landing bolder claims in market vs. competitors.
• Collaborating and working with BUs Legal network and external law firms to solve challenges collaboratively across markets, while managing the legal budget.
• Managing, creating, and collecting knowledge, best practices, precedents, and know-how for the BUs Legal Team.
• Identifying potential legal risks of business activities and proactively taking steps to minimize legal exposure effectively through practical advice to the business.
• Preparing strategy and ensure trainings are conducted for the business amongst others, Business Integrity, Marketing & IP Laws, AI, Privacy Laws, and Competition Laws.
• Collaborating with Sustainability and external affairs team on advocacy work.
• Business partnering in key negotiations, litigation activity and other major projects related to the BUs Greater Asia business.
• Business partnering and handling local legal work.

KEY REQUIREMENTS:

• The preferred candidate would have 15+ years of relevant professional experience and licensed to practice law in the Philippines

• Having a proven track record of working on a diverse, cross-border team winning together is a must.

• Possess an exceptional ability to collaborate and communicate with others, both internally and externally and with a strong consumer & customer obsession
• A track record of providing best-in-class solutions and thinking out of the box
• Must have a global mindset but with strong local execution capabilities and ability to handle multiple assignments & manage major projects to successful completion.

We highly encourage applicants to exclude information on age, gender, and school/s in view of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Unilever assesses candidates based on skills, performance, experience and leadership.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.